Mara Kimmel has a long career in Alaskan public policy focused on rights and justice in northern communities. She has been on faculty at the Seattle University School of Law, the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University and served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Anchorage Museum. In addition to teaching and research, Mara has worked as an immigration attorney and as an advocate for tribal subsistence rights. Mara has been involved with several city initiatives focused on equity, resilience and combatting human trafficking, and lead the development of Welcoming and Resilience initiatives at the Municipality of Anchorage. She also works on expanding access to justice through her work with the Alaska Court System. Mara serves on the national board of directors for Welcoming America, the regional advisory board for the Anti-Defamation League, and is a board member and co-founder of the Alaska Institute for Justice. Mara was a member of the State of Alaska’s Climate Action Leadership Team and chaired the Advisory Committee for the 2019 Municipality of Anchorage’s Climate Action Planning process. Mara has a PhD from Central European University, a JD from the University of Minnesota School of Law, a Masters’ degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a Bachelors’ degree from the University of California Berkeley.
